Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-03-09

almost as stalwart and broad shouldered, and
is n of the plainest men imaginable. He
will stop On the street and talk about sthe
market" with the most broken down and
and seediest Spectator in town. He always
wears a big sombrero, rusty, dusty and
greasy. He is greatly attached to this big hat,
and wears it constantly from early morning
till late at night. He refuses to take his hat
off in places where the usages of society call
for barred heads, and it said that he some
times uses the big hat for a night cap.
There is a story about this hat. 1t seems
that Hutch has a holy horror of Photographic
cameras aud portrait artists. It's son
Charles, O rich banker, tried for months to
coax the old man to sit for his portrait.
Hutch has not done such a thing since he was
an apprentice at a shoemaker's bench in old
Lynn, and he refused. point blank and per-
sistently. Becoming desperate. Charles
employed an artist to follow the old man
on the sly. with instructions to improve the
first opportunity to "catch his face, I'M
awares. For three weeks the artist logged
the big operators footsteps, without once
catching his subject with his hat off. Then
he abandoned the chase in despair. The only
portrait of Hutch ever printed is the one I
sent herewith, which the we'll known artist,
Lederer, caught one day last week on the
floor of the board of trade.
Charles Hutchinson is a patron of art and
president of the Chicago Art institute. But
old Hutch does not believe in art. He actu-
ally swears at art as he swears at nearly
everything else. A disguised man was Hutch
when he heard that his son had paid $1,000
for a picture of three or -four sheep by Rosa
Bonheur. "Why," said he, "the internal fool
could have gone out to the stock yards and
purchased all the stock he wanted at SO a
head"
Like John Wentworth, and perhaps a ma
jority of the successful men of Chicago,
Hutchinson came from New England. After
leaving the bench in his native city Of Lynn,
he started a dry goods store, but was caught
in the panic of 1857 and knocked out with
$4,000 liabilities and small assets. He came
Immediately to Chicago, began specializing
or the board, and in two years paid off his
debt down east, and at the beginning Of the
war was free of all embarrassment Ever
since he has been growing richer and richer.
He is not a bold speculator-he avoids
big deals and corners-but makes it a rule to
show q profit at the end of every days trad
ing. He is "a scalper, and well knows the
value of eighths of a cent multiplied by mil
lions of bushels, quickly turned, and on the
right side OF the ledger. He likes to Jump in
quick and out at the first opportunity show
ing a profit. He hates o loss worse than a
poor man with his all at stake, and has been
known to load up with a million of wheat
and then close out on a decline of only an
eighth. He dabbles in real estate in the same
way. and will buy y s10o, 900 tract one day
and sell it the next if he can get S101, 600 for
it. He is the great and only 'lut and ca o
man Of the Chicago board, and is making so
much money out of his speciality that the other
fellows are trying tohave put and call'' trad
ing abolished. He owns one bank, and his check
! is good for enormo sums in any bank in
town, whether lie nave deposits therein or
not. He is.very secretive. He once volun.
taiily sent his check for S200,0 900 to a man in
whom he had no special interest, but who
was in trouble. Out of pure gratitude the
man told about it, and Hutch has never
spoken to him since.
"Old Hutch" is fond of whist, and pays
$4,000 a year rent for a room in which be and
his cronies enjoy a rubber or two each day at
the noon recess, lunch being served them at
the same time. He keeps a quart bottle of
whisky i'll his private room, and invites his
friends to take q nip with him. None of these
ever accept a second invitation. The whisky
Hutch delights in is said to be the hottest,
rankest whisky that ever trickled from a still.
WALTER WELLMAN.